Your Morning Phil: Epstein, Friedman, Ozzie

September 29, 2011|By Phil Rogers

Talking baseball while wondering where Jonathan Papelbon pitches next season: 1. With one of the most magical nights of baseball ever behind us, the Cubs can start to get serious about their general manager search. Theo Epstein is available for conversation a lot sooner than anyone thought.

Unfortunately, however, executives with other MLB teams believe the Red Sox’s 7-20 September collapse will make Epstein less open to leaving Boston than he would have been had the season not ended so suddenly. He made it clear after the Orioles’ ninth-inning rally to beat Papelbon that there’s a lot of work to do with the Red Sox, and it seems unlikely that the Boston native – son of the novelist and renown Boston University professor Leslie Epstein – would bail out on his homeboys.

Before the Red Sox became the first team to ever miss the playoffs after holding a nine-game lead in September, friends of Epstein had said he was becoming restless in his professional life. He and Red Sox president Larry Lucchino have sometimes clashed, and he was reportedly intrigued by possibly having a chance to try to come to Chicago and duplicate his success in Boston. But this will be a winter spent in crisis mode for the Red Sox, and Epstein is expected to be one of the hands on deck.

Epstein could get fired or forced out, however, but that doesn’t seem likely. Manager Terry Francona is reportedly the more vulnerable member of the Red Sox duo that combined to break the Curse of the Bambino in 2004 and win another World Series in ’07.

2. It had appeared this would be the week that Ricketts would approach Rays general manager Andrew Friedman about his possible interest in the Cubs. But the dramatic home runs by Dan Johnson and Evan Longoria will at the very least make Ricketts wait until after Tampa Bay is eliminated from the playoffs, and seem likely to make it harder for Friedman to walk away from the terrific young team he has developed.

This situation has swung wildly in favor of Friedman staying put since Tuesday, when he was despondent about the small crowds turning out at Tropicana Field after the Rays began to chase down the Red Sox for the wild-card spot. Friedman seemed more open to talks than he had been a month earlier, shortly after Jim Hendry was fired, with the latest round of Tampa baseball apathy a slap in his face. But Johnson and Longoria, among others, have electrified the fan base again, like it is 2008 all over again.

How will Friedman feel a week after this wild ride has ended? What will owner Stuart Sternberg tell him about their future together? No one really knows the answer to that question, but the better the story gets, the tougher it’s going to be to leave. Ricketts could go 0-for-4 on his GM A-list. The Yankees are working to keep Brian Cashman in New York, Epstein and Friedman seem less likely than ever and the “Moneyball’’ star, Billy Beane, could be out of the Cubs’ reach. A person close to Athletics’ owner Lew Wolff said he’s telling people that Beane is staying put as Wolff’s top baseball man and a major asset in the operation of his Major League Soccer franchise, the San Jose Earthquake. At least Ricketts can seek conversations with Epstein and Beane, even if it’s only to cross their names off his list.

3. Ozzie Guillen will be highly paid by the Marlins but he’s not exactly doubling his salary, as was widely reported in Chicago (disclaimer here: the salaries of managers and GMs are not as readily available as players, so misinformation is always a consideration). Conventional wisdom held that Guillen’s 2012 option with the White Sox was for $2 million and that he was going to get a four-year deal in Florida for $16 million. But unless you factor in maximum incentives, that number looks high.

The Miami Herald reports Guillen’s new deal is worth $10 million over four years; the South Florida Sun Sentinel says it’s about $12 million, plus incentives. Guillen has increased his salary significantly since 2004, when he earned about $1 million with the White Sox after taking a job offer without bothering to discuss salary (he said early this year he was “drunk’’ during the whole period those talks were taking place). The new deal, according to the Sun Sentinel, puts him behind only Mike Scioscia, Tony La Russa and Francona, and very close to Joe Girardi. Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker had earned more when they managed the Cubs. By the way, one report says that the White Sox initially asked Florida for outfielder Logan Morrison in exchange for releasing Guillen from his 2012 contract but ultimately decided to lower the asking price. Had Jerry Reinsdorf insisted on getting a top player like Morrison, the Marlins might have hired Bobby Valentine instead. Reinsdorf decided it was time for a change, and dropped his price.